Why charge such a man with malice prepense? Why say, that he was instigated by the devil? Not so; he was an unfortunate, misguided, unhappy man. And yet the judges, with perfect unanimity, have sentenced this unhappy man to be hanged! The liberties of the people appear to be in danger; and it is deeply to be deplored, that those gentlemen of various crafts, who are sufficiently at leisure, to sit in judgment, upon the judges themselves, have not appellate jurisdiction, in these high matters, with power to invoke the assistance of the Widow’s society, or some other male, or female, auxiliary ne sutor ultra crepidam society.
Footnotes:
[1] The palpable reluctance of Mr. Macaulay to deal in liberal construction, and to award the smallest praise, on such occasions, is not confined to Penn. A writer in Blackwood’s Magazine, for October, 1849, page 509, after referring to the glorious defeat of the Dutch fleet, off Harwich, when the Duke of York, afterwards James II., commanded in person, remarks—“Mr. Macaulay, in his late published History of England, has not deigned even to notice this engagement—a remarkable omission, the reason of which omission it is foreign to our purpose to inquire. This much we may be allowed to say, that no historian, who intends to form an accurate estimate of the character of James II., or to compile a complete register of his deeds, can justly accomplish his task, without giving that unfortunate monarch the credit for his conduct and intrepidity, in one of the most important and successful naval actions, which stands recorded, in our annals.”
Other English historians have related it. Hume, Oxford ed. 1826, vol. vii. page 355—Smollett, Lond. ed. 1759, vol. viii. page 31.—Rapin, Lond. ed. 1760, vol. xi. page 272. “The Duke of York,” says Smollett, “was in the hottest part of the battle, and behaved with great spirit and composure, even when the Earl of Falmouth, the Lord Muskerry, and Mr. Boyle, were killed at his side, by one cannon ball, which covered him with the blood and brains of these three gallant gentlemen.”
[2] The editor of the New York Sun, under date, Jan. 25, 1850, says—“Yesterday, we were waited on, by the Rev. Lemuel Haynes, of this city, the person, who, convinced of the innocence of the condemned parties, aided in finding the man, supposed to be murdered.”—The Sun must have been under a total eclipse. This very worthy man, the Rev. Lemuel Haynes, who figured, honorably for himself, in the affair of the Boorns, was born July 18, 1753, and died Sept. 28, 1833, at the age of 80—as the gentleman, who conducts the chariot of the Sun, will discover, by turning to Cooley’s “Sketches of the life and character of the Rev. Lemuel Haynes, N. Y. 1839,” p. 312. Some dark object must have passed before the editor’s eye.